The Struggle is Real

March 9, 2020March 8, 2020 / adkjoe / 2 Comments

Since the beginning of the year I have been running consistently and on a plan. I’ve also noticed small gains as my fitness slowly makes improvements. However I’ve also paid more attention to my bad runs where I’ve begun to notice a pattern emerging. In the past this is something I have not given any attention so I am intrigued to say the least.

My “Bad Runs” runs that I believe should have felt less effortless or where my heart rate seems higher than it should are due to several things in my opinion.

#1. Sleep or the lack of: Most mornings I get up at 0330 to be at work by 0430. I find it very difficult to go to bed before 8PM. I’m currently getting on average 6 hours per night. When I come home from work I try to take at least a 2 hour nap most days. I feel that sleep or proper rest plays a HUGE roll in the quality of our lives.

#2. Feeling Rushed: If I don’t give myself down time between work,life, etc and a run my heart rate has the tendency to be higher as well. I firmly believe if there is not a transition period that this definitely affects attitude, approach and performance. Also time constraints fall into this category as well. I’m keeping a close eye on this one.

#3.Fear: Fear of getting hurt again rules the roost here, as does fear of failing in my workout. This is just a major part of my personality or as my wife calls it “The Mr. Excess” clause. As much as I want to say she’s crazy I can’t because she is 100% correct. Over the years I’ve struggled with this in many aspects. I’ve had this predetermined notion if you aren’t running big miles or fast paces you’re really not running. This is absolute foolish thinking on my part and a major reason of why I’m always injured.

The Positive: This past Sunday was my long run (8 Miles). This would be my longest run in well over a year. I got a good nights sleep, woke early and took the time to do my pre-run stretching, rolling and mentally eased myself into the workout. I was rewarded with a great run!

As I move forward I hope to learn and grow with this process. I also hope that even when I have a bad run/workout I can move past it and live for the next day.

Question: Do you struggle with anything similar?

Cheers!

Long run (8 Miles). This was a great run in my opinion.

My go to breakfast and post run fuel is:
“Chocolate Oatmeal” with raisins. 1 cup quick oats, 1 ounce serving raisins, 1 Tbsp mini chocolate chips and 3 packets Stevia sweetener.

On the Mend

March 28, 2019March 27, 2019 / adkjoe / 2 Comments

Three weeks post surgery and I’m really beginning to feel better. Still a touch sore on the inside of my right knee where they went in to repair my meniscus and remove some small amounts of arthritis. Basically I pretty much haven’t done a stitch of exercise since Christmas Day when all this went down and it shows. Man are my calves sore!

My body wants to consume food as if I was still running 30 miles a week and the scale well that thing and I haven’t been friends for a while now. None the less yesterday was a beautiful day with bright sunshine, a light breeze and some cool spring temperatures. Going stir crazy I decided to head over to the Vestal Rail Trail and do some walking.

I wound up walking 4 miles with minimal discomfort and a tiny bit of soreness. This is huge in the process of healing! On April 11th I return to see my doctor for a checkup and his thoughts of when I can start slowly testing the waters of running again. My fingers are crossed that come end of April I can return. It will take me a while to get back into shape but I’m all about baby steps and doing this process right.

Cheers

Finished my 4 mile walk on the Vestal Rail Trail March 27th 2019.

The Winter Blues

February 24, 2019 / adkjoe / 4 Comments

On Christmas morning my running world came to a screeching halt. I went out early with my friend Ken to do a 5 miler while our families were still asleep. The pain in my right knee was so bad by the time I got home I could barely walk. I couldn’t climb the stairs in our house for several hours until some of the pain subsided. On New Year’s Eve I finally got into see the doctor and he was concerned about my pain and its location so he ordered an MRI. My MRI lit up like a Christmas tree showing I had what the doctor called a severe bone bruise (Almost a fracture) and a torn meniscus. He was perplexed more about the severity of the bruise than my meniscus. As I sat in his office with my wife you could see I wanted to cry. It was immediately clear to me that I would not be able to run the Parade Day Mile with my son nor with my team in this years Seneca 7 race, I was devastated!

I could not imagine where the bruise had come from as I had not fallen or anything recently. Flipping through the pages in my mind I did recall falling back in early October and banging my knee pretty hard. It hurt for a few days and then went away. I continued my running routine and sometime in late November I would get twinges in my knee while running, kind of like it wanted to give out. In typical fashion of me being me and my high tolerance for pain I kept running on it thinking it would just go away. I was wrong and it gradually got worse, with some days better than others.

I have not run or done anything too strenuous since the holidays. The doctor wanted to wait at least 4-6 weeks to see if my bone healed before doing meniscus surgery otherwise I would need two surgeries. The good news is my bone has healed and I will be having surgery on March 1st. Recovery in theory will be another 4-6 weeks before I can think about running again.

As I mentioned earlier I won’t be able to run with my team this year at the annual Seneca 7 relay race. However I will be there that weekend in April with my friends cheering and celebrating.

Cheers!!

The Winter Blues…..

Snow, Rain, Cold & Wind = Seneca 7

April 30, 2018May 1, 2018 / adkjoe / 5 Comments

For the past several years now I have been wondering when we would get stuck with some tough weather conditions for the annual Seneca 7 relay event. I’m here to tell you that Mother Nature did not dissapoint. Teams were subjected to hours of snow, rain, cold and wind for their 77.7 journey around Seneca lake in New York’s Finger Lakes region.

Looking back over the past five years since I have been running in the Seneca 7, I think this year had to be the most epic. We knew we would have it tough as the super fast and talented women of Red Newt Racing would put us through our paces. This all day battle where we traded the lead back and forth was nothing short of awesome. Red Newt Racing would beat us by 64 seconds according to official results. They ran around the lake in 7:54:28 for a pace of 6:06 and our team “Liar Liar feet on Fire” completed it in 7:55:42 for a pace 6:07. Can you say nail biter!

I’d like to extend a big thank you to our sponsors Bottomless Brewing and Zenolink Human Performance Center for their friendship, generosity and support as well as all the amazing race volunteers who stood with us in those conditions, cheers to you all.

L-R: Adrian Milisavljevich, Joe Geronimo, Ben Snodgrass, aaron Perry, Ryan Heinlein, Jeff Fahery & Jordan Varano. 1st place male, 2nd place overall.

Red Newt Racing 1st place overall and Liar Liar Feet on Fire 2nd place overall Seneca 7.

L-R: Adrian Milisavljevich, Ryan Heinlein, Ben Snodgrass, Jordan Varano, Jeff Faherty, Aaron Perry, Chris Welch owner (Zenolink Human Performance Center) Joe Geronimo and Tom & Carrie Thompson owners of Bottomless Brewing.

2016 Seneca 7: 8:05:35

April 26, 2016February 25, 2019 / adkjoe / 4 Comments

Team: Liar, Liar, Feet on Fire 2016 Seneca 7 overall winner.

On April 24th our team “Liar, Liar, Feet on Fire” took part in my favorite race, the Seneca 7. For those of you who don’t know about this race I’ll briefly explain. The Seneca 7 is a 77.7 mile relay race around beautiful Seneca Lake in New York’s Finger Lakes region. This year 281 teams consisting of 7 runners each took part. Each runner on a team is required to run 3 times during the event. Each leg varies in distance but does not exceed 6 miles.

On the morning of the race I woke early as the sun began to rise over Seneca lake as I had an amazing view from my hotel room in Geneva, NY. Two other teammates of mine had crashed with me as well and the others scattered in hotels in the area.

The race start waves began at 0630 with the last wave going at 0900. We all met up at the starting line area around 0800 for our 0900 start (9:02:35). Aaron who was our first runner anxiously awaited the gun. A-Aron as we like to call him got the fire started quickly and the day just continued from there. We would arrive at the halfway point in the race at 12:50PM and begin our northward trek up the east side of the lake. We crossed the finish line back in Geneva at 5:08:10 encircling the lake in 8:05:35 for a daily pace of 6:14 per mile securing the 1st place overall winner of the 2016 Seneca 7.

To say we were excited might have been an understatement. I myself was personally humbled by the days event. In the end we ran hard, we had a lot of fun along the way but most importantly we ran as a team of friends who share a passion for running.

I’d like to extend a HUGE thank you to all who cheered for us, congratulated us and supported us, you all are amazing and I appreciate you!!!!!!!

A great big thank you to Seneca 7 race directors Jackie Augustine & Jeff Henderson and all who took the time to volunteer for another amazing race.

https://youtu.be/HX7ir8VQ-lE Take a peak at Ryan’s dance moves!

L-R: Ryan Heinlein, Joe Geronimo, Aaron Perry, James Wilson, Dan Cavlari, Race Directors: Jackie Augustine & Jeff Henderson, Adrian Milisavljevich & Jordan Varano.